Waffles
by eventinierboat
Summary: At his son's rehearsal dinner, Igneel can't resist teaching him a lesson for stealing his waffle. Sequel to pancakes.


**Happy NaLu Day! So this is sort of a sequel to Pancakes. Please enjoy!**

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**Waffles**

"Wendy! Are you ready!?" Grandeeney hollered up the stairs to her daughter, who was putting the finishing touches in her makeup.

"Yeah mom! I'll be right there!"

"Hurry! We're late!" Grandeeney pushed, glancing in horror at the clock. Only twenty minutes to make it. Not enough time unless they broke a few laws.

"Natsu won't mind. I'll bet he's late too." Wendy reassured her stressed out mother as she quickly climbed down the stairs with her shoes in her hand. Together, they rushed into the car, praying that they'd be fortunate enough to bypass all police.

[-]

Wendy was grateful to gulp in the fresh air once that had arrived at their destination, her stomach terribly upset by her mother called driving. In her opinion, it was more of a rollercoaster. At least they were on time and Wendy walked as fast as she could in her ridiculously tall high heels to the restaurant that her brother had chosen for the rehearsal dinner. Dressed in the cocktail dress Sheila had forced her in, Wendy found herself uncomfortable in the presence of so many old friends. But at least Romeo was there to keep her company.

Grandeeney on the other hand was missing the presence of her husband. Though his last text did suggest that he was up to no good with his shenanigans. Nonetheless, she wasted no time in greeting Jude and Layla and soon was immersed in her chatting. No one ever noticed the arrival of the groom and bride-to-be.

Yet, when the time came, Grandeeney took it upon herself to calm down the numerous guests.

"Excuse me! Can everyone please shut up," she said innocently (and Natsu chuckled.) "Yes yes. Thank you. First things first: Thank you all for coming tonight to the rehearsal dinner. I must say that aside from my own son, everyone did a wonderful job at the rehearsal."

"Hey! I did just fine if you ask me!"

Grandeeney ignored her son's outburst and continued on with her speech. "Now, usually they serve real fancy stuff at rehearsal dinners. But, since Natsu had a say, we ended up on a different path so please, enjoy your appetizers while the main entry is about to come. Congratulations my son _and_ Lucy."

Everyone clapped and dug in to the food the waiters brought. For appetizers, they had eggs. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so Wendy was left wondering why her mother looked so shifty during the speech. Her worries were soon forgotten when Igneel finally arrived 'fashionably late' as he claimed.

Only getting a light scolding from his wife, he immediately inhaled his food. The eggs were delicious and got right into sharing Natsu's embarrassing stories.

Now Natsu and Lucy were joking around with their friends, who had all miraculously found love. Erza and Jellal, despite Lucy's first thoughts, proved to be quite a normal couple. Levy and Gajeel had surprised them all towards the end of Senior Year of high school and were already married. Natsu was more shocked by how Gray was able to get Juvia to say yes when he proposed. According to him, Gray was a total asshole who would have died alone in a room full of cats. Even Wendy had started dating Romeo, much to Natsu's protests.

But Natsu had this chill down his spine when the servers took away the plates. Something was wrong. Something was off. He scanned the tables… was someone gonna crash the wedding? Maybe one of Lucy's rejected suitors?

But when his eyes landed on his father who was seated right across from him, his heart plummeted and the chills intensified. There was something off in the way he smiled. Almost as if there was malice… But Natsu brushed it off. There was no way his father was going to try anything tonight… right?

Soon the entrees came, and to everyone's surprise, there were waffles. Gajeel remarked how Natsu had always loved having breakfast for dinner and Lucy agreed. But Natsu was busy trying to ignore the dread building up in his stomach. Maybe horsing around would distract him!

"Hey pops!" Natsu called, capturing his father's attention and it only took a split moment for Natsu's fork to snake to his father's plate and rescue a waffle. His father's face was priceless when Natsu had the audacity to retort, "Privileges of the Groom!" Had he not learned from the last time he stole his pancake? Foolish boy.

But he forced his anger to quell. For the moment. And Natsu felt the chill grow only stronger.

Yet, the coast was clear when the waiters cleared the plates again, calming Natsu down. But Igneel had other plans.

Banging his fork noisily on his drink (a wine glass filled with orange juice), he captured everyone's attention.

"Now I'm not sure if this is customary, but I really don't care. You all are gonna listen to me right now cuz I have a speech. Good? Good.

"You see, I'm going to go into the origins of this beautiful relationship. Right to when they started dating.

"Because, my dear listeners, when my pyromaniac son was all but moronic 17 year old (as we all were once), I found it odd that he'd shown no previous interest in girls. So, my family and I came to one conclusion: our son way gay."

Natsu spit out his drink as others chuckled.

"And so, I constantly pushed him to come out of the closet and confess his one secret: he was dating his best frenemy, Gray Fullbuster who you will see seated on Natsu's other side. Now half of you have no idea who I'm talking about and why the other half seem to be shocked. You see, Gray and Natsu spent every moment together either fighting each otehr, or fighting someone else. A competitive pair they were.

"And so one night my son came home looking way too happy. It was weird and unnatural for me to see him in such a state, so I jumped to the conclusion that he'd just come home from a date with Gray. And so Grandeeney teased him all night."

"Liar! You took part in it too!" his wife shouted indignantly.

"Noooooo," Igneel said, winking. "I'm pretty sure it was just you, but moving on. The next morning, Nastu was an idiot and forgot that it was Saturday. What can I say? I laughed! It's my job as a father! But then Natsu had the audacity to steal _my _pancake. And so, I made sure to teach him a lesson. Long story short, Natsu brought Lucy over to prove he was dating a girl and we kind of fought it out physically and then Gray walked in half naked and then it was all over. But Lucy stayed. She stayed when any other girl would most likely have run away. But that wasn't the end of her trials.

"So, when Natsu proposed and stole _my_ brownies, I had to get involved. I totally commandeered the engagement party as revenge, and after we once again fought it out physically, and Gray ended up half naked (seriously Gray, I really hope your stripping habit can be helped!) and it was an overall scary experience for everyone outside the family, Lucy stayed. So her final and never ending trial is putting up with that pink-haired idiot over there because he can sure screw things up at times. But I can tell that the secret to why they're such a happy couple, is because they really love each other. I mean seriously, no one else could put up with all of us.

"And now it's time I end my speech before Natsu and Grandeeney clobber me and say my final point. Lucy Heartfilia, it is truly an honor to say that you have always been as a daughter to me, so please give me plenty of grandchildren."

Igneel smiled as his audience was left in a mix of tears, laughter, and glares from a select few. But then sadness filled his heart because he knew… his baby boy was leaving home and him job as a father was almost done… and hopefully he'd make a wonderful grandfather.


End file.
